Entrepreneurship can be isolating – 3 Reasons Why You Should Have a Mentor
Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely venture. Your friends and family may not understand the need to follow your dreams and be wary of the risk involved in becoming your own boss. Add that with the fact that most entrepreneurs embark on this journey from the comfort of their home office and you will understand how this often becomes an isolating experience.
Becoming your own boss has lots of advantages of course, but the level of pressure also increases as you are now solely in charge for the success or demise of your venture and there is no one else to turn to for direction.
This is one of the reasons I started the idea2delivery video series. Being a serial entrepreneur, I have lived through the joys and frustrations of being an entrepreneur and wanted to share what I had discovered along the way. I have also learned that you shouldn’t try to do this alone. Here are three reasons I believe every entrepreneur should have a mentor;
1. Avoid costly mistakes
- Entrepreneurs usually start out with a product or service that they know everything about, but they are likely to not grasp all the intricacies of running a business.
- A mentor will have more business experience than you and be able to guide you through some of the less exciting aspects of being an entrepreneur. They will also be able to advise you on the quickest ways to accomplish things that they have had to accomplish themselves.
- There are some aspects of running a business where mistake can have important repercussions, financial or otherwise on you or your company, such as: anything to do with finance and taxes, launching a company without a business plan and a lack of clear branding.
2. Help get your foot in the door
- One of the biggest advantages of mentors is they can open doors for you. This is a valuable asset when you are the new kid on the block.
- Your mentor will be able to introduce you to their network, and can offer you access to far more senior decision-makers than you currently have.
- The members of their network will be more willing to connect with you if you have a business connection in common rather than if you were a casual acquaintance from a networking meeting. Aligning yourself with a mentor in your field will guarantee even more meaningful connections.
3. A second perspective
- Your passion and vested interest in your venture may prevent you from being open minded sometimes, a mentor is on the outside looking in and can offer a new way to look at things.
- When you get stuck, another perspective from someone who has been through what you are facing can help guide you to solutions, often much faster.
- A great mentor will be willing to give you a very frank view of things, something that is hard to do when you are so close to the issue at hand.
One of the joys of being an entrepreneur is being your own boss, but that doesn’t mean you should isolate yourself or not take advantage of the knowledge of others who have been there, done that and can help you avoid making the mistakes they made along the way.
Do you work with a mentor? What is the best advice you have been given regarding your start-up?
